I have a question and I'm sure there are many of you who probably have an answer(s).
Background: I have a Sig229 .40 S&W. Really nice gun that I bought used and is very reliable and accurate. I recently decided to start reloading as I have been shooting combat at our local range here in Sierra Vista. I bought a Dillon Sqaure D and am very pleased with the unit. I asked the salesman at the Sportsman about bullets and he pointed me to a large box of X-Treme 155 grain RNFP copper plated bullets. He shoots IDPA and pretty much knows his stuff about reloading. I reloaded about 100 rounds using 6 grains of Alliant Unique powder. This is one of the powders recommended in the Loadbooks USA and also Guns and Ammo's site. I used CCI #500 small pistol primers and Winchester brass.
I didn't get to shoot any loads as I had surgery about this time (December) and was not able to get out to the range. After the holidays I went back to the Sportsman and bought 100 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 155 grain hollow points figuring that it would be nice to have some personal protection ammo around. I loaded it with 7.5 grains of Unique per the loading handbook. They listed 6.8 to 8 grains max. About this time I looked at the Guns and Ammo site and saw that they listed 7.5 as max for a Speer 155 g HP round.
Anyhow I went to the range today and thought, what the heck I'll shoot 50 rounds of each and see how they compare. I was very surprised and hence my question.
We shot at a silouette target from 15 yards, five rounds of each time.
The X-treme 155 loads shot a group of about 6 inches in diameter but the pattern was not symetric, that is the grouping seemed to be variable within the group.
The Speer Gold Dot 155 load shot a group of about 2-3 inches in diameter and the pattern seemed to be very symetric. It didn't seem to matter who was shooting.
One of the shooters said that the hollow point had more mass towards the base of the bullet and therefore was more stable in flight. That made some sense as it is true for any moving object, move the center of mass back and the object becomes more stable.
However, I also wondered about the load as someone else commented that every round likes a particular load and maybe the hotter load of 7.5 grains was better. I wondered about this and thought maybe there was some truth to that as well.
What do you folks think? I would welcome any comments or advice.
AZ
Background: I have a Sig229 .40 S&W. Really nice gun that I bought used and is very reliable and accurate. I recently decided to start reloading as I have been shooting combat at our local range here in Sierra Vista. I bought a Dillon Sqaure D and am very pleased with the unit. I asked the salesman at the Sportsman about bullets and he pointed me to a large box of X-Treme 155 grain RNFP copper plated bullets. He shoots IDPA and pretty much knows his stuff about reloading. I reloaded about 100 rounds using 6 grains of Alliant Unique powder. This is one of the powders recommended in the Loadbooks USA and also Guns and Ammo's site. I used CCI #500 small pistol primers and Winchester brass.
I didn't get to shoot any loads as I had surgery about this time (December) and was not able to get out to the range. After the holidays I went back to the Sportsman and bought 100 rounds of Speer Gold Dot 155 grain hollow points figuring that it would be nice to have some personal protection ammo around. I loaded it with 7.5 grains of Unique per the loading handbook. They listed 6.8 to 8 grains max. About this time I looked at the Guns and Ammo site and saw that they listed 7.5 as max for a Speer 155 g HP round.
Anyhow I went to the range today and thought, what the heck I'll shoot 50 rounds of each and see how they compare. I was very surprised and hence my question.
We shot at a silouette target from 15 yards, five rounds of each time.
The X-treme 155 loads shot a group of about 6 inches in diameter but the pattern was not symetric, that is the grouping seemed to be variable within the group.
The Speer Gold Dot 155 load shot a group of about 2-3 inches in diameter and the pattern seemed to be very symetric. It didn't seem to matter who was shooting.
One of the shooters said that the hollow point had more mass towards the base of the bullet and therefore was more stable in flight. That made some sense as it is true for any moving object, move the center of mass back and the object becomes more stable.
However, I also wondered about the load as someone else commented that every round likes a particular load and maybe the hotter load of 7.5 grains was better. I wondered about this and thought maybe there was some truth to that as well.
What do you folks think? I would welcome any comments or advice.
AZ